Anonymous
- Date posted
- 50w
Cause of OCD
Is it important to know the cause of your OCD? Is there always a root cause of it? I'm just afraid that I'm not addressing enough of the root cause of it, meaning it will keep coming back.
hanysm@gmail.comhanysm@gmail...
- Date posted
- 49w
Trauma can indeed exacerbate (OCD). I've been reflecting on this topic and have developed a theory about the root cause of OCD that I find logical and that has resonated with others. I like to think of our brain as a house with a limited-capacity attic, which represents our memory storage. To function efficiently, our brain needs to regularly clear out old, unused memories to make room for new ones, as our brains constantly recording everything thing around us. This process is akin to having a mental "maid" whose job is to clean and organize the attic. When the attic gets full, the mental maid pulls out "dusty" memory boxes and presents them to us. We are meant to quickly decide whether to keep or discard the contents, allowing the box to be reused for new memories. For most people, this process happens seamlessly, with little emotional attachment to old memories. For individuals with OCD, this process becomes complicated. When presented with a memory box, instead of making a quick decision, they begin to ruminate on the contents. These contents often relate to deeply important themes like health, family, or faith. The hesitation to discard these memories signals the brain to keep them, even as new memories need storage. This creates a backlog of memory boxes, all demanding attention. As the backlog grows, the brain's functioning is threatened by the lack of available memory space. In response, the mental maid pushes these memory boxes to the forefront more frequently and urgently. This increased urgency can manifest as intrusive thoughts or compulsions, and the cycle of pain continues, potentially worsening over time. It's important to note that this process isn't under our conscious control. It's an inborn mechanism in our brain that's meant to keep us functioning optimally. In OCD, this helpful process becomes overactive, leading to distress and dysfunction. This theory aims to provide a different perspective on OCD, viewing it as a malfunction of a normally beneficial brain process rather than as a purely negative condition. I hope this adds more context to the understanding of OCD and encourages further discussion on this complex topic.
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 48w
I like this but I am just a bit confused. Are you saying that when we hold onto TOOM many memories OCD forns?
hanysm@gmail.comhanysm@gmail...
- Date posted
- 48w
@Anonymous - The brain functions as a living recording device, capturing everything you see, hear, and touch. Even if you hear a conversation in a language you don't understand, it gets recorded. Experiments with humans under hypnosis have demonstrated the ability to recall the details of such conversations verbatim, even if they initially made no sense to the person. Given the brain's limited capacity and the number of brain cells, most irrelevant memories are erased through a mechanism I previously mentioned. This is where the "brain maid" comes into play, cleaning up unnecessary memories. The brain maid doesn't care about the content of these memories; it's your awareness that signals which memories to keep based on your reactions. For instance, if you hear a conversation in Russian and have no emotional reaction to it, it's considered irrelevant. Another factor that prompts the brain maid to bring memories to your awareness is their relation to values you hold dear, such as God, loved ones, or moral dilemmas. The same mechanism can explain the dreams we experience during sleep. Dreams often represent the brain's cleanup process in action. In this context, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be seen as a form of daydreaming or ruminating, where one is unable to ignore certain thoughts, thus allowing those memories to be recycled. Call this "Hany Theory" , Hany is my first name, and I hope it will one day contribute to finding a cure for OCD and a relief for the millions of suffering.
hanysm@gmail.comhanysm@gmail...
- Date posted
- 48w
@Anonymous - Just wanted to add more direct answer your question. I am saying, this happens EITHER when the brain reaches a memory threshold of some sort, OR it happens according a preset cycle like during our sleep, or Both. As you can see, from this assumption there is a strong correlation between lack of sleep and triggering such mechanism because of not enough time to do its clean up.
Hopeful58Hopeful58
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 50w
Listen to Dr. McGrath’s Wednesday night program on OCD. He addresses this!
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 50w
I just did! I'm still wondering: how do I know that what I have is not just trauma showing up or a false belief I have formed? Cause if that's the case, wouldn't it be useful to spend time uncovering the root of the problem? Like, I just had some suicidal thoughts related to religion and I thought that maybe I had learned some faulty things about it
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 50w
Where can I watch
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 49w
@Anonymous It's on YouTube
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 48w
@Anonymous Thanks
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Anonymous
- Date posted
- 22w
Question: What causes OCD. Nature and/or Nurture?
Why do some people develop OCD?
Tony Davies
- Date posted
- 18w
Question
Why is it that you beat one OCD think, but another OCD thing comes up related to it, but the same theme?
Joe87
- Date posted
- 12w
Where did your OCD come from?
So I have been trying to work out over the past 5 years where my OCD come from and have began to realise that ruminating on where it comes from is actually a compulsion in itself. I believe mine come from having a low self esteem and a lot of stress in my life at that time. I then attended talking therapy to try and understand my feelings and intrusive thoughts and all this did was fuel the OCD further because trying to assign meaning to the thoughts is actually the opposite of what we should do. Does anyone else feel like they know what triggered there OCD?
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